05/11/2008 - Manchester, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cristiano Ronaldo and Ryan Giggs scored goals to help Manchester United retain the Premiership title with a 2-0 win over Wigan at The JJB Stadium on Sunday.
United entered the day level on 84 points with Chelsea, but held the edge in goal differential, meaning three points at Wigan would be enough to hold onto the title.
The Red Devils were given an opportunity to take the lead in the 31st minute when Wigan's Emmerson Boyce brought down Wayne Rooney inside the area and the referee pointed to the spot.
Ronaldo stepped up and cooly deposited his 31st goal of the season into the lower right corner, sending Wigan goalkeeper Chris Kirkland the wrong way.
Wigan looked dangerous at times and stayed within a goal until the 80th minute, when Giggs put the title out of reach by taking a pass from Rooney at the top of the box and beating Kirkland to make it 2-0.
The Welshman came on as a substitute in the second half, giving him 758 appearances for the club, which ties him with United legend Sir Bobby Charlton.
Although the afternoon was nervy at times for Sir Alex Ferguson's men, it was Chelsea who had a tougher time dealing with the pressure, drawing 1-1 at home against Bolton.
Second-half substitute Andriy Shevchenko put the Blues on top in the 62nd minute, but Bolton stole a point in stoppage time with a goal from Kevin Davies that leaves Chelsea two points off the pace.
Chelsea captain John Terry had to be taken out of the game early in the first half after colliding with goalkeeper Petr Cech. The Englishman suffered an arm injury and was stretchered off, leaving his status for the Champions League final against United on May 21 in doubt.
Things were just as dramatic at the other end of the table as the relegation strugglers each came up with big efforts.
Birmingham came into the day trailing by one point, but they recorded an impressive 4-1 win over Blackburn with two goals from Cameron Jerome.
The club was headed down, however, when it discovered that Reading had pounded last-place Derby 4-0, leaving one relegation spot remaining.
Fulham could secure safety with a win over Portsmouth at Fratton Park, but the game entered the final 15 minutes without a goal. A draw would not be enough to keep Fulham up, but they came through with a 1-0 win as Jimmy Bullard's free kick was nodded into the back of the net by Danny Murphy in the 76th minute, completing an improbable comeback by the Cottagers to remain in the top flight.
Reading and Birmingham will now join Derby in the bottom three, while Fulham is safe after winning four of its last five games.
Everton claimed the last UEFA Cup spot with a 3-1 win over Newcastle, 10-man Manchester City was crushed 8-1 by Middlesbrough in what could be City manager Sven Goran-Eriksson's final game with the team, while Arsenal downed Sunderland 1-0, Liverpool won 2-0 against Tottenham and Aston Villa played to a 2-2 draw with West Ham.
<< O's select contract of Cintron
Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Baltimore Orioles selected the
contract of infielder Alex Cintron from Triple-A Norfolk on Sunday.
Baltimore signed the 29-year-old Cintron to a minor league deal on March 31.
He batted .288
<< Yankees place Betemit on DL
Bronx, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Yankees placed infielder Wilson
Betemit on the 15-day disabled list Sunday.
Betemit left Saturday's 5-2 win over the Detroit Tigers in the fourth inning
with a strained right hamstring.
Bet
<< A's activate Harden from DL to start against Texas
Arlington, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Oakland Athletics activated oft-injured
pitcher Rich Harden from the 15-day disabled list Sunday, in time to start the
team's series finale with the Texas Rangers.
Harden was placed on the DL for the si
<< Djokovic tops Wawrinka to Rome final
Rome, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Third-seeded Serbian Novak Djokovic rallied to
beat Swiss star Stanislas Wawrinka to win the $3.5 million Italian Masters on
Sunday.
Djokovic, who disposed of world No. 1 Roger Federer in the quarterfin
Fever knocks Recapturetheglory out of Preakness >>
Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Recapturetheglory, fifth in the Kentucky
Derby, has been declared out of the Preakness Stakes after showing a fever
Friday night.
"We took his temperature last night (Friday)," assistant trainer
Inter held by Siena, Roma cuts lead to one point >>
Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Inter Milan failed in its second attempt to
secure a third straight Serie A title, finishing 2-2 with Siena at the San
Siro while Roma beat Atalanta 2-1, cutting Inter's lead to just one point with
one gam
Yankees-Tigers postponed due to heavy rain >>
Detroit, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sunday's scheduled series finale between the
New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers was postponed due to rain.
No make-up date for the game was announced.
Diamondbacks' Johnson scratched from start >>
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Randy
Johnson was scratched from his scheduled start against the Chicago Cubs on
Sunday due to wet weather conditions.
Edgar Gonzalez was tabbed to start in Johnson's pl
In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
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